Anyone have any issues with Netflix saying your connection is too slow?
I went to speedtest.net and it shows what I should have. Rebooted router and xbox and still same thing. Resorted to playing COD 5 instead of a movie:(
If I clicked on ok it was showing only 1 bar when I normally have all 4.
My router shows all the computers and devices and there was nothing moving on the network. No downloads or uploads. This happened sunday night. It was fine on friday and saturday.

Can you confirm how you connect your 360 to your router?

ie. ethernet or wireless?

The reason I ask is that if you are getting a good speedtest, then maybe it's not the connection to the internet that is the problem, but wireless interference between your router and xbox. Of course if you are connecting via a cable then that blows that theory..

do a speedtest to san jose cali... thats where netflix servers are.

What did the speedtest show?

do a speedtest to san jose cali... thats where netflix servers are.

I've always wondered about this. I am not much of a computer guy, and whenever I go to speedtest.net, you have to pick a server to test to. I live in minneapolis, so it always suggests there. Usually I get good speed and low ping. However, a lot of time I pick somewhere in california, for example, and the speed slows considerably and ping goes up.

Can someone explain. Intuatively this makes sense, that it takes longer to get the data a further distance, but should I be testing to Washington to get a true idea of LIVE performance for example. Or like jagouar above mentions testing to San Jose to get an accurate Netflix speed.

the more "hops" the connection takes the slower the ping and more likely less available speed. but in the other thread somebody did a tracert and it shows netflix servers are in san jose so running speed tests to san jose will be the only way to really tell if you are getting enough speed.

I've learned to ignore the speed meter. I usually get 2 out 5 but got 4 out 5 suddenly this weekend and the movie and a lot of artifacts in it, then two hours later I got 1 out 5 and the movie was pretty solid quality wise.

You could do a trace rt and see exactly where the slowdown is.

I'm having the same exact issue. Netflix worked flawlessly for a few days but now when ever I want to use it I get the "your connection has slowed message" two to three times a viewing.

My 360 is wireless (don't ask me to hook it up via ethernet, it's not possible). I'd love any info on a possible fix. My connection appears to be fast enough to handle it.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/365051074.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

I live in arctic Canada. The internet connections are simliar to dial-up modems. I purchased one video off of the xbox. By the time the movie finished downloading, the movie expired and I was not able to watch it :(

One other thing to watch for with Netflix's speed test: if you choose an HD movie, the test will measure differently. I get four bars consistently with SD movies, but only two bars with HD movies.

I have never gotten more than 2 bars. I have no idea how to make it faster. it seems to look ok, but I don't think that any of the HD ones are showing in HD. I am hooked up to my router by ethernet.

Also QOS makes it slower as well. Netflix on the xbox hates it when QOS is on. I get a max of 2 bars when it is. When I turn it off though I get 4-5 or whatever full is. And I am in Indiana which is far from Cali.

What is QOS?

I'm in Toronto and have never had less than 4 bars at the start. The only time mine has dropped in quality was an SD movie that I kept starting and stopping and fast forwarding/rewinding through. I think the drop in quality was due to all the changes I was making though.

i often begin with 4 bars, then re-buffer with reduced quality. its kinda annoying... but it usually happens 30s into the movie then holds strong.

i'm in columbus, oh

What is QOS?

I'm in Toronto and have never had less than 4 bars at the start. The only time mine has dropped in quality was an SD movie that I kept starting and stopping and fast forwarding/rewinding through. I think the drop in quality was due to all the changes I was making though.


I think I read in a previous thread that your, or well your xbox live, was orginally from the states, but anyways how you getting netflix in Canada?

Geography doesn't have much to do with it. Distance makes a difference in latency (ie. ping times) because no one has found a way to break the speed of light. But you can't tell the distance your packets travel by looking at a map. Your packets are most likely not going to take a direct path. For bandwidth it's all a matter of congestion in the peerings between providers. You may be able to get 20mb/s to speedtest.net in San Jose for instance because your provider has plenty of bandwidth to speedtest.net's provider. However if Netflix is in San Jose but using a different provider whose links to your provider are congested you'll get different results. Additionally may be using a content distribution network like Akamai and therefore serving videos from different points.

jgibo1 (OP), I live just up the road from you in Frisco and I can't get more than 1 bar. Started out getting 4 bars fairly often. I blame time warner cable as they are the root of all evil. Could TW be putting some IP based throttle on Netflix? I am able to game, download movies from Live, etc. without issue.

Steve

I think I read in a previous thread that your, or well your xbox live, was orginally from the states, but anyways how you getting netflix in Canada?

Yes. My xbox and live account are from the states. With a US based live account, the netflix blade will show up and you can activate the xbox as a netflix ready device. In order to activate it on netflix's website, you will need to access the netflix website through a US based proxy server. All internet traffic where I work is routed through NYC so I can add movies to my watch instantly cue from the office. I can do it from home as well, but I have to connect through the VPN. You can also use a proxy server. Google anonymous proxy and you will come up with various services. I think you will still need a US based live account and a netflix account (which requires a US billing address).

i'm also getting spotty quality on my netflix SD and HD rentals via the new xbox interface. i usually get 2 bars and highly compressed looking video, but even when i get 4 bars the so-called "hd content" is nowhere near HD quality.

jgibo1 (OP), I live just up the road from you in Frisco and I can't get more than 1 bar. Started out getting 4 bars fairly often. I blame time warner cable as they are the root of all evil. Could TW be putting some IP based throttle on Netflix? I am able to game, download movies from Live, etc. without issue.

Steve

I have it hooked up with ethernet. and I have Time Warner too. Wish there was Fios here in The Colony. One thing I forgot to mention is I tried to watch a movie on my wireless laptop and it gave me 3 bars but instead of playting said I could only watch one movie at a time. I even turned my 360 off and still got the message. Didn't feel like calling Netflix. Just went back to playing a game instead.
Didn't try yesterday. Was wanting to finish campaign of COD: World at War.
Will try tonight.

My netflix was 3 bars on the xbox consistently for the first week or so. The past 4 days have been 1 bar and HD doesn't work. I suspect Netflix needs to buy more trucks.

It's happened to me in the past while buffering but I've always had a set of full bars, be it SD or HD content.

I live in arctic Canada. The internet connections are simliar to dial-up modems. I purchased one video off of the xbox. By the time the movie finished downloading, the movie expired and I was not able to watch it :(

LOL! Sorry if true, but funny either way.

Comcast uses their boost the first few seconds of a d/l. So, you get compensation once that shuts off. What I usually do is let the movie run for a bit, then hit 'B' button to back out...and go back into the movie. Usually things have leveled out and all is well. I only need to do this on HD movies, SD is always four bars and no compensation (I am wireless on 360).

so, i take it that some people are seeing decent looking HD content form netflix via their 360? HD content i've bought on xbox marketplace looks great on my setup, the HD i've seen from netflix barely looks SD!

I believe I read somewhere the bars for HD only goes to two and the bars for SD goes to four.

no they both go to 4.... but if you get 1 or 2 bars on a hd stream it will not show in hd.... only sd.

I wonder if this is only affecting certain "major" providers.... for instance my cable internet routes to netflix via llnw.net which is limelight networks and i only get 2-3 mbits during peak times.

Happening to me currently...

so, i take it that some people are seeing decent looking HD content form netflix via their 360? HD content i've bought on xbox marketplace looks great on my setup, the HD i've seen from netflix barely looks SD!


The movies I watched in HD looked fine. Definitely better than SD but not as good as bluray. I had 4 bars on all of them though. Don't know what it would look like with less.

I believe I read somewhere the bars for HD only goes to two and the bars for SD goes to four.

That's what I'm seeing, but for the first two weeks I was getting 4 for HD as well. I was hoping it was a network problem or something, but now it seems to be forcing me to 2 bars. I know nothing on my end changed (my connection is the same as it always was) so something/someone along the line is hosing me, whether it's Comcast throttling it or Netflix forcing it, I do not know.

I'm disappointed though, because the HD looked great.

Same problem.

Watched the first 4 episodes of Heroes Season 3 and 30 Rock in the first couple days after NXE and it worked perfectly, then it dropped down to 2 bars and crappy SD and then last night it said my connection was too slow to even stream anything :mad:.

I am connected via ethernet and have 13Mb download speed and am usually about 13.5 according to speedtest.net. I'm with Grande Communications in San Antonio, TX.

I wonder if I would run into the same problem. I have FIOS with 20MB down (and I DO get that on speedtest.net).

Yea I was fine yesterday then today I get no bars on anything. Time Warner 15mb connection also in San Antonio.

Considering that those with problems seem to be in different parts of the country, on different ISPs, it seems pretty clear that the problem must be at the source - i.e., Netflix is struggling to keep up, rather than it being an ISP/network/end-user problem :eek:

I had 4 bars on everything, SD and HD for the first week or so after the nxe was released. Since then, I consistently get 4 for SD still but only 2 for HD which is noticeably softer. Hoping it's a netflix issue that's eventually resolved (or maybe they changed the initial bandwidth test? regardless, I didn't have buffering with 4 bar HD material). 360 wired to router.

Also QOS makes it slower as well. Netflix on the xbox hates it when QOS is on. I get a max of 2 bars when it is. When I turn it off though I get 4-5 or whatever full is. And I am in Indiana which is far from Cali.

looks like you may be on to something here. I turned off QOS in my router and immediately bumped it up one bar in the tests I've run. Not getting 4 like I was the first week, but it seems like the quality drop off on HD is between 2 and 3 stars, because 3 is nowhere near as soft as 2.

I'm having the same problems - TW in Austin, TX. It only seems to occur in the evenings, though. Unfortunately, that's the only time this feature really matters to me. At first I thought TW was throttling me, but since someone in Grande is having the same problem, I guess it's Netflix's fault. I shouldn't be surprised. Once NXE rolled out, there must have been hundreds of thousands of new users.

I'm having the same problems - TW in Austin, TX. It only seems to occur in the evenings, though. Unfortunately, that's the only time this feature really matters to me. At first I thought TW was throttling me, but since someone in Grande is having the same problem, I guess it's Netflix's fault. I shouldn't be surprised. Once NXE rolled out, there must have been hundreds of thousands of new users.

I'm in Austin, TX and also have Time Warner and am having the same slow connection problems.

I'm having the same problems - TW in Austin, TX. It only seems to occur in the evenings, though. Unfortunately, that's the only time this feature really matters to me. At first I thought TW was throttling me, but since someone in Grande is having the same problem, I guess it's Netflix's fault. I shouldn't be surprised. Once NXE rolled out, there must have been hundreds of thousands of new users.

Remember this traffic doesn't necessarily jump right from Netflix's network to your ISP's. Depending on peering arrangements, geography, etc... It might traverse several different providers' facilities before it hits you. All it takes is one of them to have busy-hour congestion and you're screwed.

You could have a 100Mb/s connection and help in most cases.

TW in Wichita Falls, TX - same problems here. (though speedtests show me at about 5.5mb/s to Dalls/FW. I'll try San Jose tonight.)

In a way I am glad I am not alone in the problem:D But hate to see this happening.

I fired up Cashback (HD) last night and got full bars. Hopefully the issue is resolved.

I watched some TV shows and movies and got 4 full bars so hopefully the connection issues are fixed.

Yesterday was the first time I tried to watch a movie since posting and got the 4 bars again. Hope it stays that way. Between getting blueray once a week and the online I feel I am getting my moneys worth.

i'm getting 4 bars and "presented in HD" for content that is supposedly HD, but i have yet to see anything that looks beter than sd-dvd.

yea, it seems better. I watched me some Star Trek TOS in HS a couple of days ago and it was awesome looking with no restarts.

Apparently Neflix has fixed the 'glitch'.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10114403-93.html?tag=newsLatestHeadlinesArea.0

excellent. hope it helps.

Netflix really needs to offer the option to choose the best quality if you're willing to wait. I'd rather wait 5-10 minutes (or whatever) to get the best quality rather than have a low quality version begin quickly. There is enough HDD space in the xbox to accomodate this.

Try picking your movie, hoping for most bars, then as soon as it starts to play, hit pause.

Leave it on pause for 5 min or so, and you'll make sure you'll have a larger buffer.

I've tested think, and I "think" it helps.

Try picking your movie, hoping for most bars, then as soon as it starts to play, hit pause.

Leave it on pause for 5 min or so, and you'll make sure you'll have a larger buffer.

I've tested think, and I "think" it helps.

But this does not change the quality setting, merely the amount of data in the buffer. Netflix only adjusts DOWN for poor connections, and not UP for good ones, once the initial speed test is complete. I agree with the previous comment regarding being able to wait for a bigger buffer to fill in order to be able to gain quality - I too would gladly trade a few minutes of buffering in order to gain some quality.

last night, no matter how long i paused it, i could start an hd tv show but after about a minute it would buffer me down to really really fuzzy SD. starting to get annoying! it says my connection is slowing down but i never have issues with my dsl connection...

Netflix really needs to offer the option to choose the best quality if you're willing to wait. I'd rather wait 5-10 minutes (or whatever) to get the best quality rather than have a low quality version begin quickly. There is enough HDD space in the xbox to accomodate this.

Agreed. I was actually surprised they didn't.

looks like you may be on to something here. I turned off QOS in my router and immediately bumped it up one bar in the tests I've run. Not getting 4 like I was the first week, but it seems like the quality drop off on HD is between 2 and 3 stars, because 3 is nowhere near as soft as 2.

I've been playing with my QOS the past week and I have it so that I can keep it on and still get 5 bars. I have Tomato on my router so my QOS is way different than other firmwares. As soon as I get a call though VOIP it slows down but that is just QOS doing its job. I only have a 3mb DSL connection now until I move again which sucks. I miss my Fios.

I can get 3 bars on any tv show like 30 rock but when i try to watch pan's lab i get 1 bar and it looks like a camcorder video. I cant even read the subtitles. Then i watched the lookout and got 3 bars. I have one more day to cancel and i just may.

I wish i could get hulu working in vmc that was be awesome.

Apparently Neflix has fixed the 'glitch'.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10114403-93.html?tag=newsLatestHeadlinesArea.0

I was on vacation and missed this. I have to test it out when I get home, but hopefully I'll be back to HD goodness like I was before.


I wish i could get hulu working in vmc that was be awesome.

I get Hulu fine through PlayOn from themediamall.com. Free trial, and $30 to buy, but it works and looks great. There's another thread I started with more details, but you should try it out...it only takes a couple minutes to install it and get it showing up on your 360.

Same issues here... Initially I was receiving four bars for HD and SD content. This lasted for two weeks. Now, I sometime get 1 to 2 bars with SD and occasionally 2-4 bars with HD. The quality of my connection has been either hit or miss. I know that my ISP is not the issue. My DL speeds are 10-11MB . This has been verified using various network tools.

I contacted Netflix support and was told that the issue was being seen across the country. Supposedly, their engineers are trying to figure out what the actual root cause of the speed issues. Per Netflix support, there is some supposition that the root cause is actually XBOX live. I wonder is other users using other connection mediums for Netflix content are seeing similar issues.

Interestingly this afternoon, I notice the following:

Within a span of 20 second, I went from 1-2 bars SD to 4 bars HD. Every time my selection indicated a slow connection, I canceled and re-started the process. On my third attempt within 20 seconds, I was able to get 4 bars HD. I was able to watch the content, Friday Night Lights in HD without any speed issues.

Equipment:

Xbox360 - Hardwired
Router - DLINK DIR-655
Cable Modem - Motorola SB5101
Cable - Cat6e
ISP -Cox communication
Location - Phoenix, AZ

ct602

i think the chances of it being live is very low.... namely because when i have issues my computers speed to san jose is below the 5mbit range (which is the min for hd streaming). live has no effect on my computer (at least i wouldnt think so).

i think this is much more likely a bw issue to san jose for those not on the west coast. going across the country and maintaining high speeds is not easy. netflix really needs to get some satellite datacenters up and running (atleast one more in the central part of the country and one on the east coast).

Same issues here... Initially I was receiving four bars for HD and SD content. This lasted for two weeks. Now, I sometime get 1 to 2 bars with SD and occasionally 2-4 bars with HD. The quality of my connection has been either hit or miss. I know that my ISP is not the issue. My DL speeds are 10-11MB . This has been verified using various network tools.

I contacted Netflix support and was told that the issue was being seen across the country. Supposedly, their engineers are trying to figure out what the actual root cause of the speed issues. Per Netflix support, there is some supposition that the root cause is actually XBOX live. I wonder is other users using other connection mediums for Netflix content are seeing similar issues.



I am having no issues with Netflix at all and have watched a ton of stuff using my 3mbs DSL line. I get 4 bars on SD movies every single time (there was one Saturday afternoon that I was getting some slow speeds but I believe that was the first weekend it was fully public). This is at many different times of day and night.

Per Netflix support, there is some supposition that the root cause is actually XBOX live.

Xbox Live... yea right. Here is the forum for the Roku Netflix player, same issues, same time frame (when the 360 NXE went live).

http://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?t=18283

IMO They just weren't prepared for the mass of new users.

I am having no issues with Netflix at all and have watched a ton of stuff using my 3mbs DSL line. I get 4 bars on SD movies every single time (there was one Saturday afternoon that I was getting some slow speeds but I believe that was the first weekend it was fully public). This is at many different times of day and night.

I get this on my 3mbs cable line, but for the first two weeks I was getting 4 bars for HD as well (which surprised me given my slow connection). I watched several movies and shows, all in HD during that time.

Now I only get 2 bars for HD :(

I am in the process of upgrading my account to a better connection.

I have a 6 mbps connection from Brighthouse cable and I recently upgraded to their digital phone and now I am only getting 2 bars most of the time when watching SD content. I know before the switch I would get 4 bars 90 percent of the time. I tried watching a HD TV show and was not able to get a HD connection. Any one still have similar issues? I will try the QOS setting tonight.

I have a 15/2 line, no one else using the internet and saturday night, prime time I was getting 1 bar. Absolutely stupid that it would be that bad. Watch it now on the xbox is NOT ready and they should have waited.

Pretty much have given up on watching anything during prime time watching hours until they fix it all.

Hmmm...I reset my cable modem and my speed drastically improved locally. From 3mbs to around 15.

Of course, the test to San Diego (I'm on the east coast) bottoms out around 2mbs.

I assume there is nothing I can do about this, short of hoping Netflix expands and adds a server location to cater to us east-coasters? Just too many hops between here and there, I guess.

For those of you using cable modems, remember that you are sharing the bandwidth with other local users. Therefore during primetime you'll get just a fraction of your full bandwidth.

For DSL, 10 Mbps = 10 Mbps
For cable, 10 Mps = 0 - 10 Mbps, depending of other local users.

Mike

For those of you using cable modems, remember that you are sharing the bandwidth with other local users. Therefore during primetime you'll get just a fraction of your full bandwidth.

For DSL, 10 Mbps = 10 Mbps
For cable, 10 Mps = 0 - 10 Mbps, depending of other local users.

Mike


I'm using DSL. 5Mbs and is very steady at that, Netflix not so much. So I don't appreciate them telling me "my connection degraded" being read as something on my side. It should be "we are experiencing high volumes, dropping quality in the meantime". Why? Because it's accurate and doesn't have not so educated people wondering what could be wrong on their end, when there isn't anything wrong.

I'm using DSL. 5Mbs and is very steady at that, Netflix not so much. So I don't appreciate them telling me "my connection degraded" being read as something on my side. It should be "we are experiencing high volumes, dropping quality in the meantime". Why? Because it's accurate and doesn't have not so educated people wondering what could be wrong on their end, when there isn't anything wrong.

I'm glad I am not the only one who takes that error message as semi-insulting.

For those of you using cable modems, remember that you are sharing the bandwidth with other local users. Therefore during primetime you'll get just a fraction of your full bandwidth.

For DSL, 10 Mbps = 10 Mbps
For cable, 10 Mps = 0 - 10 Mbps, depending of other local users.

Mike

You do understand that a DSL line is also "shared" it is just moved further down the line. You might get full bandwidth out of your neighborhood but after that you are at the mercy of the provider and everything in between just like cable modem users. So unless you have a netflix watch it now server in your neighborhood you will see the same issues as cable modem people.

I tried the Netflix streaming on my 360 for the first time last night.

Tried a few TV shows and a HD movie...got 4 bars all the time but it all looked like total crap. It was like watching a 320x180 MPEG on my PC blown up to higher 1680x1050 rez or something.

Glad I only wanted to see what it was about.

"Not ready for prime time" in my book.

I tried the Netflix streaming on my 360 for the first time last night.

Tried a few TV shows and a HD movie...got 4 bars all the time but it all looked like total crap. It was like watching a 320x180 MPEG on my PC blown up to higher 1680x1050 rez or something.

Glad I only wanted to see what it was about.

"Not ready for prime time" in my book.

What were you watching? I have a hard time believing it looked that bad if you had 4 bars and it said "presented in HD" since that stuff basically looks on par with normal cable/satellite HD.

You do understand that a DSL line is also "shared" it is just moved further down the line. You might get full bandwidth out of your neighborhood but after that you are at the mercy of the provider and everything in between just like cable modem users. So unless you have a netflix watch it now server in your neighborhood you will see the same issues as cable modem people.

You share cable bandwidth with your neighbors on the same route and the rest of the internet, and you are at the mercy of the servers you connect with.

You share DSL bandwidth with the rest of the internet, and you are at the mercy of the servers you connect with.

i often begin with 4 bars, then re-buffer with reduced quality. its kinda annoying... but it usually happens 30s into the movie then holds strong.

i'm in columbus, oh

Happens to me too. Starts out 4 HD bars. I just got FIOS 20Mb Down/20Mb Up so I should have enough bandwidth to get the best quality Netflix streaming, but through 3 HD movies that I've watched so far, the streaming has been paused and quality lowered two times during each of the movies. Shouldn't 20Mb be enough NOT to cause a shift? By the time the 2nd reduction happens, the quality looks worse than DVD quality on my 120" screen. Can I stop it from reducing the quality? I would imagine the speed doesn't ever really go lower than the 4 or 5Kb or so it needs for best quality.

You share cable bandwidth with your neighbors on the same route and the rest of the internet, and you are at the mercy of the servers you connect with.

You share DSL bandwidth with the rest of the internet, and you are at the mercy of the servers you connect with.

This is not correct, unfortunately. DSL provides you with exclusive bandwidth only until it hits the DSLAM, at which point all local DSL users are pooled on to a shared upstream link.

There is definitely some issue with netflix streaming right now. I have a 30 meg down connection at home and everything is wired.
Last week I was getting a perfect full bars,and now my netflix connection is at 1 bar which makes any movie look like crap.

Checked my connection to my xbox and it is perfect. Also measured my download speed and its still at 30 meg down.

Netflix really needs to explain what is going on because the only reason I subscribe is for the streaming.

*UPDATE

This is pissing me off,I just did some research ,and this seems to be a widespread problem on all players. Play on is effected as well.

What really ticks me off is I bought the Roku player for my parents for Christmas with a netflix acount. When I set this up for them at there house I might as well be handing them a 100 dollar door stop because that's all it will be used for.

I wish there was a netflix forum to give feedback on. Only forum is the Roku forum,and the people on there are saying there set top boxes are pretty much unusable now..

How do you go to working perfect at launch to not working at all???

Dec 14th seems to be the date when everything went to hell.

Now I'm getting the "too slow" message after I was getting 4 bars a couple weeks ago. It plays on 1 bar connection strength and the picture is so blurry you can hardly read the opening credits. Seriously, does anything associated with the 360 work correctly?

Apparently it's happening all over the place: http://blog.netflix.com/2008/12/streaming-performance.html

I watched a movie perfect HD quality yesterday... today it is too slow to even load. I dont' think its us I think its their service becuase I can stream them from my laptop fine both are wireless.

phew..i guess i'm not the only one having issues.

Just got netflix, had wireless streaming with 3-4 bars and watched about 4 movies last week on my downstairs television. I moved the xbox upstairs last night to hard wire it to the router to see if i could get a better connection, but only had 1 bar...tried wireless again, still 1 bar...tried plugging xbox directly into cable modem and still had 1 bar. I guess it's either netflix or comcast was having issues.

Oh, and i also lost all credibility with the wife about how cool netflix is and "see how great a purchase the xbox was"....thanks netflix

Weird. I haven't had anything but 4 bars. We've probably watched 10-15 movies so far and the only hiccup we had was once when fast forwarding and rewinding a movie (quality dropped). FWIW, I'm using Rogers wired into a router.

The service has gotten alot better since my last post. I'm getting consistently 4 bars on everything now...Thank God.It is still not as good as when the new 360 service launched,but it will do.

Also if anyone is messing around with the Roku boxes,theres a new patch out that fixes alot of the streaming on it. You have to force the Patch tho by hitting the update button until it takes the update.

To Netflix get your sh!t together. How can you not think this will be a widely popular service, you guys are the only game in town.

I'm on episode 18 of Heroes first season... have had 4 bars on all episodes.

The only downside is that in the last 4 two were HD and two were SD quality??? I tried restarting them and it still stayed in SD even with 4 bars.. I just could not get the "Presented in HD" message.

Still all episodes were in more than acceptable image quality on my Comcast cable connection in Florida SE

i get 4 bars every time for SD streaming, but the best i can get for anything tagged with HD is three bars, and it usually downgrades to SD within a minute or two. very frustrating!

Things were going good over the holidays until thursday night during primetime. Was watching a bunch of stuff while getting 4 bars.
Now my router shows upload and download. When Netflix was showing the too slow connection and 1 bar I started it again and hit play. Test started again and my router was showing 900kb down. I answered yes and even though the picture looked like crap it was downloading at 5 to 7mb.
An hour later I started another episode and got 4 bars. I used to have a 7 down connection and now have to 10 with 16 burst from Time Warner. Previously on the 4 bar download it would max out to the 7 mb. Now with same 4 bars it is doing between 14 and 16. So I definitely think this issue is with the servers during peak times.

I tried watching a bad movie the other day with NF streaming through Xbox. It stopped after two minutes and said something like "your connection slowed down, optimizing quality". But it blanked out the screen with that message for a couple of minutes. Then it started the movie for another minute and then stopped with the same thing. Then one more minute on and another off and I just shut it down.

NF streaming seems to be teh suxor.

just to add to the theme regarding it being on NF's end, I have a low-end fiber to the home connection (4mb down, 1.5mb up) and normally get everything in 4 bars, but for some strange reason I only get 2 bars for the first series of "The Office". I can click on anything else in my queue and I get 4 bars (havent tried any of the other Office series'). I can watch any of the episodes of Jerhico in HD without issue at 4 bars.

Maybe it's dependent on which server the content's on?

Ok, so the first couple weeks I could watch HD fine with 4 bars. Then it switched so SD was 4 bars and HD stuff was 2 bars (which means no "presented in HD").

The last 3 days, HD stuff is back to 4 bars again (I couldn't be happier about that). Maybe things are getting resolved a bit...or maybe it's just wishful thinking and it's just a fluke.

Now I DONT have my resolution changing on the fly like many of you but when I start another movie it changes to Crap with 1 or 2 bars...

Just on a whim I tried the following strategy:

DONT restart or resume the movie... Instead
1) Exit back to the Xbox Dashboard
2) Restart Netflix and choose your content, start it again..

Each time I have tried this I have restored my FULL SPEED!!! ie HD 3-4 bars on a Cable connection.

What this means to me is that Re-establishing your connection to the Netflix server may be the answer??? I guess it's like downloading a file from a slow server...sometimes by canceling a slow download and then restarting it you can get a faster Handhold with the server...

Try it out:D

What were you watching? I have a hard time believing it looked that bad if you had 4 bars and it said "presented in HD" since that stuff basically looks on par with normal cable/satellite HD.

I'm on episode 18 of Heroes first season... have had 4 bars on all episodes.

The only downside is that in the last 4 two were HD and two were SD quality??? I tried restarting them and it still stayed in SD even with 4 bars.. I just could not get the "Presented in HD" message.

Still all episodes were in more than acceptable image quality on my Comcast cable connection in Florida SE


Does it always say "Presented in HD" if it is HD? I have been trying different shows and wasn't sure if it was HD or not, I usually get 4 bars except on "Eye of the Dolphin" which consistently rates as 2 bars. Swingtown looked like it could be in a compressed HD, but it didn't say "Presented in HD"?

I was able for the first time ever to watch a movie last night during prime time and get 4 bars.

Does it always say "Presented in HD" if it is HD? I have been trying different shows and wasn't sure if it was HD or not, I usually get 4 bars except on "Eye of the Dolphin" which consistently rates as 2 bars. Swingtown looked like it could be in a compressed HD, but it didn't say "Presented in HD"?

I think it only does if it's available in HD and your connection is good enough. Unfortunately short of knowing which titles are available in HD, there is no way to tell by just looking at the queue on XBOX.

But if you go to Netflix, go to Watch Instantly and browse the "HD" genre you'll see the list. I just put The Host in my queue and leave it there because it's one that I can remember is in HD....so I can use it to test.

I was able for the first time ever to watch a movie last night during prime time and get 4 bars.

After only being able to do this for the first week (and then it went away), I am happy to report I am back to getting things in HD again at least for the last week or so. I was getting the "connection has slowed message" so I've resorted to starting the movie, pausing it for 5 minutes, and then resuming and it seems to be ok (I assume this is allowing it to buffer more in the background).

Four improvements I want to see (sooner than later)
1) The instant queue should be organized alphabetically. It makes no sense to have an "instant" library ordered by preference. By preference does make sense for the physical disc queue, but not for the instant. I have been manually ordering them alphabetically, but it's a pain.
2) The list on XBOX needs to designate two things: HD availability and genre (comedy/action/sci-fi/etc..)
3) We need the option to force the highest quality, if we are willing to wait for it to buffer enough.
4) I want the progress bar (that shows up if you press info or pause) to also show how much as buffered...similar to video sites such as Youtube. This way I can see if I am "catching up" to the end of the buffer.

I'm a new Netflix user via Xbox 360. I have a 6mb dsl connection. I added some hd stuff to my instant que, but I never get the "Presented in HD" message, it just starts playing. The picture looks ok, but I'm not certain I'm getting hd, any way to know for sure?

I'm a new Netflix user via Xbox 360. I have a 6mb dsl connection. I added some hd stuff to my instant que, but I never get the "Presented in HD" message, it just starts playing. The picture looks ok, but I'm not certain I'm getting hd, any way to know for sure?

It's probably not unless you see that "presented in HD" message. The message shows up on the Netflix screen when it does the connection test.

How many bars are you getting, and what are you watching?

1) The instant queue should be organized alphabetically. It makes no sense to have an "instant" library ordered by preference. By preference does make sense for the physical disc queue, but not for the instant. I have been manually ordering them alphabetically, but it's a pain.

Ugh, I disagree. I say leave them in "my order" instead of alphabetical. There are movies in my instant queue that go away in a couple of weeks. I put them up top and want them to be my first choice.

It's probably not unless you see that "presented in HD" message. The message shows up on the Netflix screen when it does the connection test.

How many bars are you getting, and what are you watching?

I get 4 bars when it says "Determining video quality", I've tried it on several things so far, the only one it said presented in hd on was a very british gangster. CSI seasons 7 & 8 don't display the hd message, neither did Wedding Daze.

If you use Netflix for general mail use you understand how they hide new releases from easily showing for you since the demand is so high. But for streaming I think they need to add a way to list all new content by date added, so I can quickly see what's really new. Since there isn't any limit in quantities I see no reason to hide anything with the streaming content.

Ugh, I disagree. I say leave them in "my order" instead of alphabetical. There are movies in my instant queue that go away in a couple of weeks. I put them up top and want them to be my first choice.

Well, maybe an option to sort the list differently then (alphabetically, by date added, by expiration date, by preference order etc...)

From a programming standpoint, this should be easy to put in.

Well, maybe an option to sort the list differently then (alphabetically, by date added, by expiration date, by preference order etc...)

From a programming standpoint, this should be easy to put in.

Oh yes... I forgot streaming content can expire, so yes definately a way to sort that way as well. Was doing some Outer Limits and then bam! Gone. They were cool to watch one here or there, but they set it up like maybe I'll get hooked and go out and buy the DVD's. No. I still feel this all here is total experimental as I don't see the money gain in it.

I get 4 bars when it says "Determining video quality", I've tried it on several things so far, the only one it said presented in hd on was a very british gangster. CSI seasons 7 & 8 don't display the hd message, neither did Wedding Daze.

I don't see Wedding Daze in the list of HD titles. CSI 7/8 are though.

I noticed back when I was having trouble, that I would get 4 bars on SD content, and only 2 bars on HD content (and not get the HD message). Perhaps CSI is not actually in HD...I know there are several titles people complain about that are listed there that may not be HD.

I would try some titles that you know are in HD. Some that I can verify are in HD (from memory that I watched recently) are The Host, Outsourced, and Beer For My Horses. I would just add those, try to play them, and see what you get.

I don't see Wedding Daze in the list of HD titles. CSI 7/8 are though.

I noticed back when I was having trouble, that I would get 4 bars on SD content, and only 2 bars on HD content (and not get the HD message). Perhaps CSI is not actually in HD...I know there are several titles people complain about that are listed there that may not be HD.

I would try some titles that you know are in HD. Some that I can verify are in HD (from memory that I watched recently) are The Host, Outsourced, and Beer For My Horses. I would just add those, try to play them, and see what you get.

Yeah, that must be the case. The Host and Outsourced both showed the hd message, and I had 3 bars. So some stuff that is listed as hd really isn't, good to know. Thanks!

Just a heads up for all you NF streamers:

I just got an e-mail from NF today asking for my opinion on the video quality of one of the movies that I streamed the other night. This says to me that they are making attempts to improve the video quality of the streaming stuff. I try to always answer the little poll e-mails from Netflix, since they seem to be a company that is more responsive to the desires of their customers than most.

Just a heads up for all you NF streamers:

I just got an e-mail from NF today asking for my opinion on the video quality of one of the movies that I streamed the other night. This says to me that they are making attempts to improve the video quality of the streaming stuff. I try to always answer the little poll e-mails from Netflix, since they seem to be a company that is more responsive to the desires of their customers than most.

Yeah, I've gotten a couple of those...both for HD titles. I wonder if they're sending them out for the SD titles or just HD.

I'm sure the service will be improved. As I mentioned earlier, I could get HD for the first week when NXE launched, then I couldn't for several weeks. However, it's back to HD again now, so something has changed (certainly not my connection). I use streaming services pretty heavily....both Netflix and PlayOn (for Hulu) so I'm glad to see this stuff being made available and quality being improved.

I've decided on those questionnaires to just put the lowest possible scores.

Even tho everything seems better,they could be doing a much better job with this all together considering the demand.

Guarantee that most of there late quarter 08 subs were for this service alone.

I was thinking of singning up for the 14 day Netflix trial and using one of my 1 month Xbox Live Gold cards. (Currently a silver member). Basically, I was just thinking of trying this Netflix thing out and seeing if it's worth the trouble. I have a wired connection in my theater room, but use a wireless connection in the living room. Primarily the Netflix thing would be used in the living room. I'm wondering if it's even worth trying if I have to use the wireless adapter?

I did a speedtest from my desktop (wired connection). I'm getting this from the San Francisco server:

5583 Kb/s download

886 Kb/s upload

16 ms latency


I tried New Jersey and got:

3462 kb/s down

917 kb/s up

56 ms latency



I live in Sacramento, Ca, very close to San Fran. Of course, my times will be much slower using wireless. I'm guessing I won't be able to see anything in high def using the wireless connection. I've thought about getting up in the crawlspace and running some wire to that room, but it would be a major pain the arse. Just not sure if any of this would be worth it.


I just think my kids would like it. They wouldn't mind SD quality, but it might look pretty horrible on my living room plasma.

I'm new to the xbox and the netflix streaming. I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed the frame rate at times appears really low, I notice it particuarly on pans. It looks so jerky. It as if the xbox doesn't have enough power to keep up.

I do have 4 bars on everything I watch so far.

Hows your expereince with this?

Adam

I don't know. I have my xbox hardwired to the router and I have never had more than 2 bars. it looks vhs quality, but I havn't noticed any stuttering

I am ethernet connected, have 4 bars for everything 99 percent of the time (except during high traffic times where I may drop to one), have watched tons of HD content (30 Rock Seasons 1 and 2) and in general am very pleased with the service. Very smooth (even the "old" movies and SD content) and the quality is more impressive than I thought it would be. Its unfortunate to hear that many others are not having the same experience.

Anthony1 I would do what you need to do to get it wired, you will lose quality using wireless on something that needs all the quality it can get. Also I would in addition to Netflix get Playon (hulu movies-cbs-cnn-youtube) as well and stream that via a PC in the house. The quality and choices they have are right there with Netflix to double up content and more unique content like Youtube.

I've been doing everything possible the last month to bring as much content to my 360 in the living room to see if I can really get to the point on dropping or going all the way down to the lowest levels of cable/sat subs. So far it's been rec'd well from the family, we did a lot of you-tubing last night as a cap'r "failorg" etc.

Off Topic a Bit:
I'm using an XP server atm, tried the Vista one but that damn file sharing slowness it has just doesn't make it work, XP flawless. I'm trying to figure out how to get past that as not everyone has it, or can't have it otherwise things like TVersity/Playon wouldn't even support Vista. In fact that is what I want out of Windows 7 beyond anything else, back to fast file sharing, some feel MS has purposely done this as a DRM measure, I don't know about that.

Looks like Netflix is having problems again this week /sigh

Back down to one on everything in my neck of the woods,and my internet connection is better then ever.

If it is like this in about 2 more months I am going to drop netflix for good.

It's odd because I have watched 4 or 5 Netflix movies at primetime this week and have nothing but smooth sailing, whereas last week was a crap shoot.

Last night I was consistently getting 1 bar for everything, and this is with a wired connection.

Reset the modem, router, etc. Backed out of Netflix in NXE and tried to log in again. None of these were any help. Still only 1 bar.

Then I went to speedtest.net. I'm located in Arkansas, and to LA I'm getting 15M down. SFO is 12M down.

San Jose was 800K down.

Could this be an ISP issue or just a product of all of the Netflix traffic being routed into San Jose?

Could this be an ISP issue or just a product of all of the Netflix traffic being routed into San Jose?

Could be anything. Only takes one bad hop from their server farm to you and the connection will be hosed. Heck, it could just be one slow cable at whatever farm/server you got routed to.

I will say I'm in PA and was still getting 4 bars last night, but that doesn't really mean anything, as I don't even know how many server farms they have and where they are at or which one I'm connected to or which hops I go through at any given time. I think people assume the NF servers are in San Diego, but I'm not even sure if that's verified.

This is definitely Netflix. They just were not prepared for the type of demand they are getting on this.

I also see they are purposely limiting the bars you can get on some of the more obscure titles. It would be fine if you could at least get 2 bars because that puts you at SD levels,but having a movie limited to 1 bar is unwatchable.

Honestly at this point I would pay an extra dollar just to have everything working all the time. It really gets bad on the weekends,and that is the time I want to watch movies.

Netflix is really starting to piss me off with this service,because it effects all there peripherals.This is not just a 360 issue,it happens on there PC based instant player,and there set top Roku box.

This is definitely Netflix. They just were not prepared for the type of demand they are getting on this.

I also see they are purposely limiting the bars you can get on some of the more obscure titles. It would be fine if you could at least get 2 bars because that puts you at SD levels,but having a movie limited to 1 bar is unwatchable.


Eh....I won't dispute they've had some issues, but it's been working fine for me for the last 3 weeks or so (better than ever, actually). What "obscure" title do you feel they are limiting to one bar? Just curious to try it out to see if there's any truth to that or if you're just jumping to conclusions.

Eh....I won't dispute they've had some issues, but it's been working fine for me for the last 3 weeks or so (better than ever, actually). What "obscure" title do you feel they are limiting to one bar? Just curious to try it out to see if there's any truth to that or if you're just jumping to conclusions.

Well it worked for about 2 weeks straight for me perfectly after it launched on the 360. I live in Baton Rouge,La for reference. Then all the sudden it will work one week then the next week it will be terrible.

Trust me it's not my connection, I have gone over exactly my setup in previous posts.It's not my ISP. Cox Cable does not limit anything.

Only reason I believe they are limiting some titles is because only recently have I seen some really popular titles come in at 4 bars contantly ,and the obscure titles come in at 1 bar.

Before I would get everything at the same connection.

This Saturday it was The Nines,and bunch of other titles I just flipped through to check there connection status so I can not give specific name because I do not remember.

Basically I was unable to watch The Nines this week because it was unwatchable at 1 bar ,where on the same night Ghost in the Shell was coming in at 4 bars.

How do you explain that other then they are limiting the stream on some titles.

Netflix is defiantly having problems my man for some people in the US. Don't be one of those guys that says everything is OK because your's is working correctly. Has the xbox 360 red ring of death taught us nothing.

This is definitely Netflix. They just were not prepared for the type of demand they are getting on this.

I also see they are purposely limiting the bars you can get on some of the more obscure titles. It would be fine if you could at least get 2 bars because that puts you at SD levels,but having a movie limited to 1 bar is unwatchable.

Honestly at this point I would pay an extra dollar just to have everything working all the time. It really gets bad on the weekends,and that is the time I want to watch movies.

Netflix is really starting to piss me off with this service,because it effects all there peripherals.This is not just a 360 issue,it happens on there PC based instant player,and there set top Roku box.

I said it before but I want to reaffirm that I personally don;'t think the bars eman anything. I get 1.6Mb down and 400k Up and usually get two bars. I've had occasions where Iget a full 5 bars or only 1 bar but really I've never had an unwatchable experience. For instance I watched the orphanage thsi weekend. themeter said I got 1 bar. Movie looked fine no artifacts, frame skips or motion blur. a couple weeks ago I watched das boot, and got 2 bars. I had some blatant artifacting early on in teh udnerwater shots but it slowly dissapeared and I enjoyed the movie. I'm watching on a 32 inch toshiba LCD and really as long as your TV does SD ok then you shouldn't have to worry about watachablity IMO.

Trust me it's not my connection, I have gone over exactly my setup in previous posts.It's not my ISP. Cox Cable does not limit anything.

How do you explain that other then they are limiting the stream on some titles.

Netflix is defiantly having problems my man for some people in the US. Don't be one of those guys that says everything is OK because your's is working correctly. Has the xbox 360 taught us nothing.


First of all, I already said I won't dispute they've had some issues. But that doesn't mean one title coming in at one bar means they are limiting the stream on that movie. Unless of course you think that you are connecting to the same server farm and the same server using the exact same connections for every title. It could very well be a server(s) that the particular movie is hosted on is having issues, or you might be connecting to a server in (for example) Cleveland for one movie, and a server in (for example) Los Angeles for another movie. Or a multitude of other reasons. There's a lot of reasons the connection could vary from one movie to the next, so to assume it's them limiting it is a pretty big assumption.

That's my two cents and I'm just trying to be helpful, rather than jumping to a conclusion that specific titles are being limited. I'm not saying you're wrong, as I'd be more than willing to try out a few titles if you can verify (for instance) that The Nines is still only showing one bar. If they are limiting it, it would be 1 bar for everyone, right? I'm not home or I would try that title out right now.

Also, just because nothing has changed on your end, doesn't mean something hasn't changed elsewhere. There is most likely a long distance between you and whatever server you are connected to, so why would you think that just because nothing has changed between you and your ISP (a few miles, probably) that nothing has changed between you and Netflix (probably a few hundred/thousand miles)? Plus, you don't always get connected through the same hops. As an example, I could type in google.com and have my connection routed through Pittsburgh, and 2 minutes later go to Google again and have my connection routed through Atlanta. Ever have a site appear slow or down to you, but other people elsewhere insist it is up and running fine? Same thing...

I know I trimmed your post a bit as well, just so I could hit on points above.

I said it before but I want to reaffirm that I personally don;'t think the bars eman anything. I get 1.6Mb down and 400k Up and usually get two bars. I've had occasions where Iget a full 5 bars or only 1 bar but really I've never had an unwatchable experience. For instance I watched the orphanage thsi weekend. themeter said I got 1 bar. Movie looked fine no artifacts, frame skips or motion blur. a couple weeks ago I watched das boot, and got 2 bars. I had some blatant artifacting early on in teh udnerwater shots but it slowly dissapeared and I enjoyed the movie. I'm watching on a 32 inch toshiba LCD and really as long as your TV does SD ok then you shouldn't have to worry about watachablity IMO.

Dude first thing there is only 4 bars max, second 1 bar puts it at unwatchable.

1 bar is blurry as all hell. 2 Bars is fine

First of all, I already said I won't dispute they've had some issues. But that doesn't mean one title coming in at one bar means they are limiting the stream on that movie. Unless of course you think that you are connecting to the same server farm and the same server using the exact same connections for every title. It could very well be a server(s) that the particular movie is hosted on is having issues, or you might be connecting to a server in (for example) Cleveland for one movie, and a server in (for example) Los Angeles for another movie. Or a multitude of other reasons. There's a lot of reasons the connection could vary from one movie to the next, so to assume it's them limiting it is a pretty big assumption.

That's my two cents and I'm just trying to be helpful, rather than jumping to a conclusion that specific titles are being limited. I'm not saying you're wrong, as I'd be more than willing to try out a few titles if you can verify (for instance) that The Nines is still only showing one bar. If they are limiting it, it would be 1 bar for everyone, right?


Yes so can you check it for me?

Also, just because nothing has changed on your end, doesn't mean something hasn't changed elsewhere. There is most likely a long distance between you and whatever server you are connected to, so why would you think that just because nothing has changed between you and your ISP (a few miles, probably) that nothing has changed between you and Netflix (probably a few hundred/thousand miles)? Plus, you don't always get connected through the same hops. As an example, I could type in google.com and have my connection routed through Pittsburgh, and 2 minutes later go to Google again and have my connection routed through Atlanta. Ever have a site appear slow or down to you, but other people elsewhere insist it is up and running fine? Same thing...

I know I trimmed your post a bit as well, just so I could hit on points above.


All I'm saying is it was consistently awesome after it first launched with the new 360 service for myself,then all of the sudden on the 14'th they changed something and it has become a crap shoot ever since. See this thread for more details.

I just want it back to the way it was when I first got it. Everything was 4 bars all the time no matter what time of the day I used it.

Dude first thing there is only 4 bars max, second 1 bar puts it at unwatchable.

1 bar is blurry as all hell. 2 Bars is fine

alright maxed like I said I rarely see that. but again 1 bar was fine on my TV. Not as good as some of the average xvids I get but it didn't detract from my viewing.

Yes so can you check it for me?

Having my wife check....she reports The Nines is showing 4 bars.

I'll check mine when I get home.

All I'm saying is it was consistently awesome after it first launched with the new 360 service for myself,then all of the sudden on the 14'th they changed something and it has become a crap shoot ever since. See this thread for more details.

I just want it back to the way it was when I first got it. Everything was 4 bars all the time no matter what time of the day I used it.

Oh, I had similar problems. For the first two weeks it was fine, then I had about a month or more of not being able to watch anything in HD (it would only show 2 bars, but SD would still show 4).

However, now it's back to normal again and has been for maybe 3 weeks or so.

It's possible they realize they are having problems and are doing maintenance and upgrades that are affecting certain people or certain areas, so it wouldn't/doesn't suprise me that some people would be having issues and others may not be. Again, without really knowing where/how many server farms they have and which people are using which farm (which probably gets redirected anyways to balance the loads depending on traffic) there's no way of knowing exactly what's going on on Netflix's side.

What I do know though (at least from my experience) is that it was working for a couple weeks, then it wasn't for a few weeks, and now it has been again for a few weeks, so it seems pretty obvious there is or was some kindof maintenance being done that affected me for a few weeks. It's even possible that they were targetting my specific area of the country during that downtime, but again, there's no way to know for certain.

I will also try to verify The Nines shows up with 4 bars during PrimeTime tonight.

It has also been working better for me. This weekend we had a hiccup trying to watch vantage point, it would come it at 4 bars, buffer and start. Then right away drop out saying my connection was too slow. Tried numerous times and couldn't get it to stick so we switched to a different movie where it got 4 bars and didn't have any problems.

I'm noticing that the netflix app itself is kind of buggy. Sometimes we'll try to launch it from the dashboard and it'll go to the download screen as if we don't have it already. I exit out of that and try it again then it loads. Also noticed that sometimes it won't play or buffer anything, just stops responding sitting at the determining network speed screen. You have to exit completely out of the netflix app and restart it to correct things.

Having my wife check....she reports The Nines is showing 4 bars.

Ok,so I just checked that movie,and now I am getting 4 bars.

So I guess that meens that they are not limiting certain titles,but the servers where I am hooking into for those movies must be getting slammed during primetime,or they are doing maintenance.

The problem is I only watch movies at night,and on the weekends../ugh
And that seems to be when they are having the most problems for my area. :(

Ok,so I just checked that movie,and now I am getting 4 bars.

So I guess that meens that they are not limiting certain titles,but the servers where I am hooking into for those movies must be getting slammed during primetime,or they are doing maintenance.

The problem is I only watch movies at night,and on the weekends../ugh
And that seems to be when they are having the most problems for my area. :(

Well, as I said, it could be a multitude of things. Maybe someone in your "last mile" (neighbors, etc) are clogging up your bandwidth during certain hours, but if you're running speedtests during that time that appear ok, that's probably not the case.

Unfortunately, there are just too many unknowns to peg down the problem. If there was a way you could know where the XBOX was connecting to, you could run a ping or traceroute to find the problem, but AFAIK, there's no way to determine that. On second thought, if you can check your router for network traffic, you might be able to find the IP address it's connecting to, perhaps, then run a traceroute to that (of course there is no guarantee that the traceroute will use the same route the XBOX will), but might be able to pin down if the source (i.e. Netflix) is the slow spot. Maybe someone else here has tried something l like that, but I have not.

I tried NF again last night and was able to watch "Streets of Fire" all the way through. It started at four bars and about two-thirds through I got the black screen "your internet connection has slowed...adjusting video quality" message. (Or whatever it is says.) It came back and looked fine at whatever the lower rez was.

So much for the limiting obscure titles idea, as that is the movie you've never heard of that's chock full of people you recognize. :)

I also watched a little of some HD show just to check it out, and I got 4 bars with the "Presented in HD" text. Looked pretty good. It was some show about national monuments that started out with Devil's Tower.

My addiction to bad movies just found a new feeding ground... :D

I'm noticing that the netflix app itself is kind of buggy. Sometimes we'll try to launch it from the dashboard and it'll go to the download screen as if we don't have it already. I exit out of that and try it again then it loads. Also noticed that sometimes it won't play or buffer anything, just stops responding sitting at the determining network speed screen. You have to exit completely out of the netflix app and restart it to correct things.

Second that:D

I have even found that by exiting out and restarting, it has "fixed" a low speed connection.

Ie After restarting I am back up to 4 BARS :D:D:D

I found for the HD stuff, if I pause it for about 5 minutes right when it starts, I don't get the "adjusting quality" thing. I assume it's allowing enough to buffer in the background that I don't "catch up"

Even though it's a 5 minute inconvenience, it's still faster than the 3 day turnaround for a physical disc, so I won't complain.

I'm actually surprised by the quality of this service, it doesn't look as bad as I had expected. Sd streamed movies look like regular dvd's on my set. HD quality isn't top notch, but definitely watchable.

I'm actually surprised by the quality of this service, it doesn't look as bad as I had expected. Sd streamed movies look like regular dvd's on my set. HD quality isn't top notch, but definitely watchable.

HD is definitely watchable (too bad about stereo sound) but video quality-wise it's fine...maybe slightly below broadcast.

SD quality varies wildly, depending on the title. I just watched The Toxic Avenger (yeah, never seen them) and it's a pretty low-budget title, and also pretty old movie. It didn't look too great, but I'm not really expecting The Toxic Avenger to be a reference title. Same with Part 2. I assume Part 3 (watching it tonight) will be more of the same.

However, I've watched other SD titles that look pretty decent.

Streets of Fire looked pretty good. Here's a question: are all the SD streaming titles 4x3 AR? Kind of a drag to be pillar-boxed, but then again it's free.

Streets of Fire looked pretty good. Here's a question: are all the SD streaming titles 4x3 AR? Kind of a drag to be pillar-boxed, but then again it's free.

Varies by title. I find more of the older stuff is. Like the aforementioned Toxic Avenger (not sure what the OAR is on that). I watched Bullitt (also an older movie) though and I believe it was widescreen if I remember correctly, as is THX-1138.

Guess it just depends on the title. My guess is the encodes (for SD) are coming from the DVD releases, so if there's not a widescreen release, you might get stuck with 4:3. Just a guess though.

I have even found that by exiting out and restarting, it has "fixed" a low speed connection.

I found for the HD stuff, if I pause it for about 5 minutes right when it starts, I don't get the "adjusting quality" thing.

I do both. If I don't get 4 bars, I just restart until I do. Then I pause as soon as the video starts for a about 5 minutes and usually this does the trick. It needs to be fixed, but I enjoy the Netflix streaming so I will put up with it for now.

I was wondering if Netflix had problems yesterday. My DSL didn't seem any slower than usual. but anytime I tried watching a movie it would act like it's going to load it, then a gray box would pop up with a message saying netflix couldn't play this selection and I would have to choose OK.

I envy you guys that have 4 bars. I have never had more than two. the top DSL avail in my neighborhood is 1.5/5 unless I upgrade to FIOS which for the money it doesn't seem like that great of an increase. I wonder if Verizon is purposely slowing us down in my neihborhood in order to push us all to get FIOS. I don't necessarily want some big ugly box it my rec room.

I was wondering if Netflix had problems yesterday. My DSL didn't seem any slower than usual. but anytime I tried watching a movie it would act like it's going to load it, then a gray box would pop up with a message saying netflix couldn't play this selection and I would have to choose OK.

I envy you guys that have 4 bars. I have never had more than two. the top DSL avail in my neighborhood is 1.5/5 unless I upgrade to FIOS which for the money it doesn't seem like that great of an increase. I wonder if Verizon is purposely slowing us down in my neihborhood in order to push us all to get FIOS. I don't necessarily want some big ugly box it my rec room.

I had the exact same problem with my roku unit. It would go to retrieve and then time out

I had the exact same problem with my roku unit. It would go to retrieve and then time out

Same here. I usually get 4 bars, but when it's having issue (not real sure what "it" is, but I know it's not my connection) I only get 2. Last night I got two bars, restarted, and got a message that said my connection was not fast enough to watch :confused:. Immediately went to the computer to run a speed test - 12 down, 5 up...sure wish they would stabilize this sh!t.

still having just as much difficulty watching HD as i was when this launched. It will usually play for about 2-3 minutes and then downgrade to SD every single time due to "slowed interner connection".

I sorry if this has been asked before, but how do you know whats available in HD?

still having just as much difficulty watching HD as i was when this launched. It will usually play for about 2-3 minutes and then downgrade to SD every single time due to "slowed interner connection".

I know it's a drag but the solution to use for now is just wait for it to load on full bars then when it starts playing press pause and wait for 10-15 minutes. I actually set a timer on my phone and do other things until it's ready to go. In that time it will have plenty of buffer data to play all the way without drops in quality.

Instant is supposed to be instant yes... But I don't feel like 10 minutes is a heavy price to pay either.

at least I now know it isn't just me. Use to get 4 bars on SD content and 3 on HD content. This weekend I would be lucky to get a 3 on SD. 90% of the time if it was at 3 it will go down to 1 or 2 while watching. WTF :)

I sorry if this has been asked before, but how do you know whats available in HD?

On the Netflix site, click the watch instantly tab, then genres, and click on hd.

I know it's a drag but the solution to use for now is just wait for it to load on full bars then when it starts playing press pause and wait for 10-15 minutes. I actually set a timer on my phone and do other things until it's ready to go. In that time it will have plenty of buffer data to play all the way without drops in quality.

Instant is supposed to be instant yes... But I don't feel like 10 minutes is a heavy price to pay either.

I do the same thing, but only for 5 minutes and it seems to work. Of course how long you would have to do it would depend on your connections speed.

On the Netflix site, click the watch instantly tab, then genres, and click on hd.

Thanks!

"I know it's a drag but the solution to use for now is just wait for it to load on full bars then when it starts playing press pause and wait for 10-15 minutes. I actually set a timer on my phone and do other things until it's ready to go. In that time it will have plenty of buffer data to play all the way without drops in quality.

Instant is supposed to be instant yes... But I don't feel like 10 minutes is a heavy price to pay either."

Instant does mean instant. There is no large buffer for streaming Netflix. Watching the realtime bandwidth monitor on my router, the moment one hits "pause" streaming stops until you hit "play" again.

To reiterate: Waiting 10 minutes does nothing to fill up a buffer, as there is no additional buffer to fill up aside from the normal 5 second one that takes 3 seconds to fill.

[I]To reiterate: Waiting 10 minutes does nothing to fill up a buffer, as there is no additional buffer to fill up aside from the normal 5 second one that takes 3 seconds to fill.

Then I suppose you can explain why for me, waiting in pause mode for about 5 minutes means it NEVER has to rebuffer, and if I don't wait it almost always does the "your internet connection has slowed" trick.

Please illuminate me with your overflowing freaking wisdom

my router and modem continue to register activity (at least via the front lights) after the stream has been paused, and with nothing else running on the network.

Then I suppose you can explain why for me, waiting in pause mode for about 5 minutes means it NEVER has to rebuffer, and if I don't wait it almost always does the "your internet connection has slowed" trick.

Please illuminate me with your overflowing freaking wisdom

I'll have to check my network traffic, but I'm with you. Before I started doing the 5 minute pause thing, I got the connection has slowed thing nearly 100% of the time, although there were a couple exceptions here and there.

Since I started doing the 5 minute pause, I don't get that message....again about 100% of the time. There are a couple exceptions, but if I do get it, it's usually a good hour or more into the movie, instead of within a few minutes like it used to be without the pause.

I'm also not sure if the 360 streaming uses the same framework as PC streaming, but I can see the buffer in the PC (Silverlight) player, and it's definitely there.

to expand on my above post, here is what I see*

* disclaimer: I do not know if the 360 streaming is even the same as the PC streaming, but it would make sense the buffer is similar in both. And yes, I watched this movie. What's it to you?

http://www.thepropers.com/ht/nf.jpg

I've let it sit there for quite awhile, and that's all the bigger the buffer got. By the length of it, the buffer appears to be about 3 minutes ahead, so if that's the case with the 360 as well, then pausing it does help, but it's not going to buffer the entire movie....but getting another 3 minutes in there by pausing might allow enough so you don't catch up to the end of the buffer and get that annoying "connection has slowed" message. Even if would let you watch an hour or so before you got the message, you could always take a short potty break in an hour to let it rebuffer a bit. Not a perfect solution of course, but a 5 minute pause works great for me. Maybe I should try a short 2 minute pause instead. Guess I could experiment some. It's really only been an issue on HD content.

This might also explaing why The Dark Lord James would see network traffic stop, since if that small 3 minute buffer is full when you hit pause, the player won't stream anymore. My guess would be if you'd hit pause right when the movie starts, you'd see traffic until that buffer fills.

i'll give the pause/buffer trick a try tonight. I'll test David Lynch's ERASERHEAD which is actually in HD on netflix, unavailable in HD anywhere else to the best of my knowledge.

From what I've read, my problem appears to be unique (at least somewhat anway). I have never gotten anthing other than 4 bars when "determining video quality" is displayed. I have also never been interrupted during a show for Netflix to change Pic Quality on me mid-stream.

However, I have had the screen blink three times when "determining video quality", four bars remain, but the picture quality changes and things tend to look worse than regular dvd. I tried watching GONZO last nite, and seriously could not make out the images the picture was so bad. Still, it had it listed as 4 bars.

I've tried signing all the way out of xbox live even, but with no success.

I am guessing this is a stability thing with netflix and not on my end, but any thoughts would be appreciated.

From what I've read, my problem appears to be unique (at least somewhat anway). I have never gotten anthing other than 4 bars when "determining video quality" is displayed. I have also never been interrupted during a show for Netflix to change Pic Quality on me mid-stream.

However, I have had the screen blink three times when "determining video quality", four bars remain, but the picture quality changes and things tend to look worse than regular dvd. I tried watching GONZO last nite, and seriously could not make out the images the picture was so bad. Still, it had it listed as 4 bars.

I've tried signing all the way out of xbox live even, but with no success.

I am guessing this is a stability thing with netflix and not on my end, but any thoughts would be appreciated.


Yeah, mine flashes too during that phase. Not sure what's going on there. Are you sure it just wasn't Gonzo that looked horrible? Quality does vary wildly from title to title.

I keep The Host in my queue (only because I know it's HD) and use that as my benchmark/test when I have doubts about things working quite right.

That's a good idea Propers. I'll set something up like that and let you guys know if the problem persists.

Since I started doing the 5 minute pause, I don't get that message....again about 100% of the time. There are a couple exceptions, but if I do get it, it's usually a good hour or more into the movie, instead of within a few minutes like it used to be without the pause.


It absolutely works. I got quality drops on pretty much everything I watched until I started the buffer trick. I've not had a drop since then. 5 min for TV shows and 10 min for movies and it's flawless.

However, I have had the screen blink three times when "determining video quality", four bars remain, but the picture quality changes and things tend to look worse than regular dvd. I tried watching GONZO last nite, and seriously could not make out the images the picture was so bad. Still, it had it listed as 4 bars.

I've tried signing all the way out of xbox live even, but with no success.

I am guessing this is a stability thing with netflix and not on my end, but any thoughts would be appreciated.

This is definitely a problem with the encode or source material of GONZO. I watched it with identical results a few weeks ago, and luckily for me Netflix sent a survey to my email about the picture quality. I answered them and hopefully more will.

Reading this thread and seeing everyone talk about getting 3 or 4 bars is making me extremely jealous. I signed up for Netflix to use this service. I have had it about a week now, and not once have I gotten more than 1 bar. I am on a somewhat ****** DSL connection, but i got 650kbps through speed test so I think that would be enough for some decent streaming. The Xbox 360 is hard wired to the router. I have tried on off peak times and it makes no difference.

I don't see why they aren't using a buffer to improve the quality for people with slower connections. I wouldn't mind waiting 30 min to start the video. That'd be better than blur-O-vision.

I concur Max. I concur. :D

This is definitely a problem with the encode or source material of GONZO. I watched it with identical results a few weeks ago, and luckily for me Netflix sent a survey to my email about the picture quality. I answered them and hopefully more will.

Yeah...you're probably right. I've got it in the queue for delivery now. I'm all up for setting up a webcam for you to watch :p;)

Reading this thread and seeing everyone talk about getting 3 or 4 bars is making me extremely jealous. I signed up for Netflix to use this service. I have had it about a week now, and not once have I gotten more than 1 bar. I am on a somewhat ****** DSL connection, but i got 650kbps through speed test so I think that would be enough for some decent streaming. The Xbox 360 is hard wired to the router. I have tried on off peak times and it makes no difference.

I don't see why they aren't using a buffer to improve the quality for people with slower connections. I wouldn't mind waiting 30 min to start the video. That'd be better than blur-O-vision.

Yeah....650kbps is not going to cut it. You need speeds a LOT faster...even if you were at 3Mbps (that's over 4 times what you have right now), you'd be on the low-end of connections necessary for streaming at decent quality, and still only about 1/2 of what's necessary for HD streaming (someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think they recommend 3Mbps for SD and 6 for HD).

But yeah, I agree with you on the buffer. I'd love if people could just set the quality and wait for it to buffer enough.

I've been having trouble with a good 50% of my selected movies in my instant Que giving me the error "Playback for this item could not be started" while trying to play them. These same movies will play on my laptop so I'm thinking my connection isn't the issue. I decided to try playon on my PS3 and all of the movies play with no problems. Could the fact that we're logged into Xbox live and Netflix (Somewhat slowing our connections) be causing issues or am I way off here. I'm about to give up on using the 360 for Netflix which is sad since it is built into it and buying playon for my PS3. I've tried to get the 360 to work by doing port forwarding on my router and setting it up in a DMZ but no luck.

^ Have you tried the PlayOn through the XBOX?

I think I've seen that message once or twice. Backing out of the Netflix (back to the dashboard) and then going back in fixed it.

^ Have you tried the PlayOn through the XBOX?

I think I've seen that message once or twice. Backing out of the Netflix (back to the dashboard) and then going back in fixed it.

I'll give it a try on the xbox and I'll also try backing out next time I get the message.

Well I tried playon on my 360 and everything play without problems. I tried playing Netflix movies under the Netflix tab and most still won't play and backing out and going back in didn't make a difference. I'll have to call Netflix on this one. In the mean time does anyone know of any free programs for playing Netflix on the 360 or PS3?

Well I tried playon on my 360 and everything play without problems. I tried playing Netflix movies under the Netflix tab and most still won't play and backing out and going back in didn't make a difference. I'll have to call Netflix on this one. In the mean time does anyone know of any free programs for playing Netflix on the 360 or PS3?

Playon's your best bet. It's only $30....but they're raising the price to $40 (if they haven't already).

Well worth the money, just for HULU IMO. I use it all the time. Now that the Youtube subscriptions are working, I'm using that more as well. Oh, and I used the CBS more as well, since I didn't know Flashpoint was back on and apparently conflicted with 2 other programs, so I missed the first 3 eps.

Thanks for the help mproper. I'm probably going to buy playon. I called Netflix and the tech guy had me delete Netflix from the harddrive and reset everything back up an it still didn't work. I was then told that they've been having problems/bugs with certain shows. Playon always works regardless of the show so it's looking like a winner

Thanks for the help mproper. I'm probably going to buy playon. I called Netflix and the tech guy had me delete Netflix from the harddrive and reset everything back up an it still didn't work. I was then told that they've been having problems/bugs with certain shows. Playon always works regardless of the show so it's looking like a winner

PlayOn just doesn't do HD, and the interface to actually play movies is a bit clunkier (FF and Rewind).

If you could tell me which titles you're having problems with, I could give them a shot. Although you did say "most" and that's certainly not the case with me (or I assume the majority of users)

The playon not doing HD isn't a big deal because the biggest user of the instant Netflix que is my daughter. Most of the programs that don't work are hers. She first had trouble with My girl 2. She switched to My girl (part 1) and that played. She then started adding disney series shows such as Suite Life of Zach and Cody season 1 and Hana Montana season 1 and these rarley play. The Suite Life was the one I was told by Netflix that it had play issues. So you can try that one if your brave enough to Que it up. If you do try multiple episodes as I get a few to play if I keep trying several times. It seems that most shows she tries to play don't work (Kid related shows). So I first thought this was a server issue until I realized playon always works.

Sure...I'll try a few of those tonight. I just hope nobody sees them in my queue. How embarrassing :)

I tried watching Mannequin last night. I had 4 bars at startup, paused it for at least half an hour at the credits because it was time to eat, and then had it do the black screen "You're internet connection has slowed" BS thing right at the beginning.

I switched back to the cable box and watched Blades of Glory on HBO instead.

It would be nice if this service could get working soon. I'd like to be able to just sit down and watch a movie from my queue. How about an option to pick a lesser resolution than the max that shows at startup? I would gladly pick 3 bars instead of the supposedly available 4, or 2 instead of 3, if it meant I could watch the movie without it stopping and making me wait for yet another connection test and buffer fill delay.

I think some of their vids have some problem with their encryption or some other coding problem - I watched Marnie and got more than halfway until it told me a had a slower connection. Went to watch it a few days later, rewound to an earlier scene, then watched until I got the connection message again - which happened at the exact same point where I had the problem the first time. Watched a few minutes more, stopped, restarted with 4 bars from a slightly later scene with no problems.

so i decided to do a complete reset of my router and since then i've been able to get consistent 3 bars on HD programming with no stopping/downgrading. good news!

Does it matter how many movies I put into my online que? Cause I put alot and I didn't know if deleting them off would speed up the viewing.

Does it matter how many movies I put into my online que? Cause I put alot and I didn't know if deleting them off would speed up the viewing.

Nope.

Does it matter how many movies I put into my online que? Cause I put alot and I didn't know if deleting them off would speed up the viewing.

There is a limit on the Netflix side of how many you can have in the instant Q (I think it's 500) It only increases the time to scroll through them. If you didn't know, you can use the bumper buttons on the controller to page through them instead of clicking one at a time.

Are there any router settings I can use to speed it up? Like ports to open or something...

Does this Netflix service only broadcast in analog sound? Whenever I try to watch a movie it is only coming out of two of my speakers... Kind of annoying.

Does this Netflix service only broadcast in analog sound? Whenever I try to watch a movie it is only coming out of two of my speakers... Kind of annoying.

Netflix is only stereo right not, but will eventually be able to send 5.1 sound. For the time being, set your receiver to a "fake surround" or other setting.

I had this exact problem...netflix was working for me perfectly on my Xbox360 and then all of the sudden it started saying that my connection was too slow. I called my internet provider to figure out if my connection had slowed down for some reason. I did the test to see the speed, and I was downloading at 16 KBPS when I was actually only paying for 12 kbps (they said there is some kind of booster that brings it up to 16KBPS. Comcast in Minneapolis upgraded me to 16 kbps which with the booster brought it to 20KBPS for free for 6 months. As soon as my router rebouted, I logged onto Netflix on my xbox and sure enough, it worked again. I'm not sure if Netflix started to get more traffic recently bogging them down, but for some reason, it requires higher downloading speeds then it used to. Hope this helps.

I had this exact problem...netflix was working for me perfectly on my Xbox360 and then all of the sudden it started saying that my connection was too slow. I called my internet provider to figure out if my connection had slowed down for some reason. I did the test to see the speed, and I was downloading at 16 KBPS when I was actually only paying for 12 kbps (they said there is some kind of booster that brings it up to 16KBPS. Comcast in Minneapolis upgraded me to 16 kbps which with the booster brought it to 20KBPS for free for 6 months. As soon as my router rebouted, I logged onto Netflix on my xbox and sure enough, it worked again. I'm not sure if Netflix started to get more traffic recently bogging them down, but for some reason, it requires higher downloading speeds then it used to. Hope this helps.

I think you mean Mbps.

Yeah....650kbps is not going to cut it. You need speeds a LOT faster...even if you were at 3Mbps (that's over 4 times what you have right now), you'd be on the low-end of connections necessary for streaming at decent quality, and still only about 1/2 of what's necessary for HD streaming (someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think they recommend 3Mbps for SD and 6 for HD).
(I know this is an old post in this thread, just to provide newer data...)

Now that the Xbox 360 is using the VC-1 Netflix stream, a 3 Mbps connection can do 4 bars on standard definition material and 3 bars on high definition material. This equates to the highest bitrate standard definition stream, and the lower quality of the two high definition streams. Basically, consistent DVD-level quality without any snags or hiccups.

Now that the Xbox 360 is using the VC-1 Netflix stream, a 3 Mbps connection can do 4 bars on standard definition material and 3 bars on high definition material. This equates to the highest bitrate standard definition stream, and the lower quality of the two high definition streams. Basically, consistent DVD-level quality without any snags or hiccups.

I use it all the time and did not realize that. The HD stuff looks pretty good to me (somewhere around broadcast HD quality for the most part...maybe slightly worse). The SD material varies wildly depending on the movie, but most of the new stuff looks ok. Unfortunately most of the StarzPlay titles are not in the correct aspect ratio (cropped for 16:9) and I've had some foreign movies have the subtitles off the screen.

Any word on if we will be getting the higher-quality stream someday? I didn't realize there were two separate HD streams.

I'm also curious (but doubtful), if they will be adding the smooth streaming tech that's coming for XBL to the Netflix. I doubt it, but a guy can dream...

I use it all the time and did not realize that. The HD stuff looks pretty good to me (somewhere around broadcast HD quality for the most part...maybe slightly worse). The SD material varies wildly depending on the movie, but most of the new stuff looks ok. Unfortunately most of the StarzPlay titles are not in the correct aspect ratio (cropped for 16:9) and I've had some foreign movies have the subtitles off the screen.

Any word on if we will be getting the higher-quality stream someday? I didn't realize there were two separate HD streams.

I'm also curious (but doubtful), if they will be adding the smooth streaming tech that's coming for XBL to the Netflix. I doubt it, but a guy can dream...

xbox 360 can stretch those for your screen. It doesn't work perfectly for every movie but if you use the 360 on screen menu(hit A on your controller, then go to the square icon about 4 icons over it willl cycle through a number of optioons. one should get the picture right).

xbox 360 can stretch those for your screen. It doesn't work perfectly for every movie but if you use the 360 on screen menu(hit A on your controller, then go to the square icon about 4 icons over it willl cycle through a number of optioons. one should get the picture right).

Uhmm...I don't want to stretch them. I want them to be in the correct aspect ratio.

What I mean is Pineapple Express and Miracle at St. Anna (2 off the top of my head) have an OAR of 2.35, but the StarzPlay encode is 1.85. I want it to be the OAR but Starz encodes their stuff to get rid of the evil, evil Black Bars that ignorant people still hate.

For the subtitles, the only one that springs to mind as being wrong at the moment is The Bothersome Man (the subtitles are 1/2 way off the screen, making them unreadable)

What I mean is Pineapple Express and Miracle at St. Anna (2 off the top of my head) have an OAR of 2.35, but the StarzPlay encode is 1.85. I want it to be the OAR but Starz encodes their stuff to get rid of the evil, evil Black Bars that ignorant people still hate.
Indeed, this is aspect ratio adjustment achieved by throwing away actual data from the sides of the film. Hence, there's no distortion to correct for on a 16x9 television, just image data that's gone and cannot be restored. It's roughly equivalent to how 16x9 movies are made into 4x3 non-letterboxed versions. And yes, I realize you already knew this, I'm just explaining for anyone else who didn't know.

Please note that Starz is not the only media company guilty of this, though. HBO does this too... They take 2.35x1 movies and chop them down to 16x9 when airing them on HBO-HD. Only a very limited number of movies escape this treatment, e.g. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was aired without the reduction from "full theatre width".

"Any word on if we will be getting the higher-quality stream someday? I didn't realize there were two separate HD streams."

We updated to the higher quality stream with this summer's NXE upgrade. We moved from the WM3 encode to the WM9/VC-1 encode. Same quality really, just lower bitrate for smoother streaming.

Indeed, this is aspect ratio adjustment achieved by throwing away actual data from the sides of the film. Hence, there's no distortion to correct for on a 16x9 television, just image data that's gone and cannot be restored. It's roughly equivalent to how 16x9 movies are made into 4x3 non-letterboxed versions. And yes, I realize you already knew this, I'm just explaining for anyone else who didn't know.

Yeah, it's like the new Pan and Scan, although not quite as severe...

I did watch Pineapple Express (because I really don't care about OAR and PQ and sound quality for a comedy), but did shut of St. Anna and got the Blu-Ray. Of course, I was expecting a much better movie. In hindsight I don't know that I'd have cared.